The cardiothoracic ratio on post-mortem computer tomography.

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_8944EE6BCF37
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
The cardiothoracic ratio on post-mortem computer tomography.
Journal
International Journal of Legal Medicine
Author(s)
Jotterand M., Doenz F., Grabherr S., Faouzi M., Boone S., Mangin P., Michaud K.
ISSN
1437-1596 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
0937-9827
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2016
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
130
Number
5
Pages
1309-1313
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: ARTICLEPublication Status: ppublish
Abstract
In clinical practice, the cardiothoracic ratio (CTR) was first utilized on plain chest radiography, and subsequently with computed tomography (CT) to diagnose cardiomegaly with a threshold of 0.5. Using CTR in forensic practice could help to detect cardiomegaly on post-mortem CT (PMCT) prior to the autopsy. However, an adaption of the threshold could be necessary because of post-mortem changes. Our retrospective study aimed to measure the CTR on PMCT and test the possible influence of variables. We selected 109 autopsy cases in which the heart weight was within normal limits. A forensic pathologist and a radiologist measured separately the CTR on axial and scout views on PMCT. We tested the statistical concordance between the two readers and between the axial and scout view and identified factors that could be associated with a modification of the CTR. The CTR measurements revealed an overestimation of the measurements made on scout compared to axial view. The inter-reader correlation was very high for both views. Among the different variables statistically tested, heart dilatation and body mass index (BMI) were the only two factors statistically associated with an augmentation of the CTR. The CTR can be useful in the diagnosis of cardiomegaly on PMCT. However, dilatation of the cardiac chambers caused by acute heart failure may be misinterpreted radiographically as cardiomegaly. Inter-observer reliability in our study was very high. CTR may be overestimated when measured on the scout view. Further investigations with larger cohorts, including cases with cardiac hypertrophy, are necessary to better understand the relationship between radiological CTR and the morphology of the heart.
Pubmed
Web of science
Create date
20/02/2016 17:21
Last modification date
20/08/2019 15:48
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